Category Archives: Movies

The State I Am In (today!)

MovieNight stuff, Movies

We get very few comments from readers on this blog, which leads us to think that either nobody reads it, or that those who do are disinclined to comment. It’s not a problem, either way (Eric B., not the one of rap fame, did comment in person on the martini picture when last we saw him here).

Anyway, we imagine if people were to make comments, one of them might be that our selections for this season of MovieNight have been a bit intense… and it’s true. We didn’t set out with that intent, but somehow we got there, due in a large part to finding a film critic in England who seems to have his finger on a pulse which beats in sync with ours.

The State I Am In gets added to my list of favorite movies ever (list coming soon). Although I mostly hate it when people refer to something as being like “X” meets “Y”, this really is like the Dardenne Brothers meet Fatih Akin. There were some surprisingly funny moments, too:

Heinrich: What do your parents do?

Jeanne: They fuck.

Heinrich: For a living?

Jeanne: No. Just now.

And the state I am in today? One too many martinis.

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L’enfant. Qui?

Love and Life, Movies

Part II of our Belgian mini-season featured a heart-wrenching work from the talented Dardenne brothers, for whom this represented a second win at Cannes. Their films are always gritty, set in an environment of soggy, gray weather, and bleaker circumstances, but somehow the spirit of their characters manages to shine out of this murk. This is compelling cinema. This was MovieNight.

As to the question above… who was the child? The movie was not entitled “Le bébé” if that gives you a clue.

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In the midst of “The Silence”, a perfectly-poured, convex-meniscus martini, caught on camera!

Love and Life, MovieNight stuff, Movies

And here’s the proof (90 proof, that is… Plymouth)

Of course we knew this would happen… not the martini – its volumetric perfection (in the virtual dark) was unexpected. The napkin below remained unbesmirched by liquid, at least until the first sip. Still… there you have it, olives and all.

More than once, a lesson has been taught, but persistently (naively?) this lesson remains unlearned. What am I talking about? Last week, we had an minor influx of Swedes and, having not yet selected a feature for this Thursday night, I somewhat stereotypingly promised them a Bergman movie next time. We were well overdue for a Bergman anyway. The thing that we just knew would happen? Not one Swede in the house.

The notion of showing Bergman to the Swedish reminded of the time that my mother made spaghetti and meatballs for a crew of Italian-Canadian bricklayers who were bivouacked in our basement during the construction of our new home in Canada in the sixties. Although it tasted good, it didn’t seem authentically Italian, even to a nine year old. The bricklayers were polite and ate it all up. Laying bricks is hard work.

Happily, we had a house full of Russians and The Silence remains a masterpiece, Swedish audience or not.

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Toto the Hero. Boum = Crack

MovieNight stuff, Movies

The Time Out review that we used to describe this MovieNight referred to Toto the Hero as “[a] deliciously offbeat film” and “an immensely vibrant, inventive, compassionate movie”. That pretty much sums it up, but the reviewer neglected to mention the theme tune, which I have been unable to get out of my head since first viewing Toto about a month ago. My wife has threatened to leave me unless I stop singing/whistling/humming it. I managed to cover it up with a layer of the theme from Winter’s Bone for a few days, but it’s back, and it’s stronger than ever!

“Boum” (Warning! This catchy tune may get stuck in your head for weeks!)

Toto the Hero was the first installment in our three-part Belgian mini-season (we won’t be doing all three consecutively), and it was suggested by Flavia who, with her second successful suggestion, gets her very own paragraph on the suggestion page.

Thanks to Jessie for (inadvertently?) injecting three lovely “flickas” into the MovieNight mix. I promised them Bergman next week. Hurra!

Also, while we’re thanking… we should also express our deep gratitude to Igor, for all the great video material he’s given us (Yello’s Touch DVD entertained us in the after hours once again!) over the years. Also for detecting the “Auto-Iris” setting that somehow got turned on on our projector. Now… about that conspiracy theory… should we show Zeitgeist at MovieNight?

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Winter’s Bone(r) and n-n-nervous brownies.

MovieNight stuff, Movies

Our Hallowe’en Special (I’m pretty obsessed with keeping the apostrophized old skool spelling of Hallowe’en alive, you may have noticed!) was indeed a treat, and the only tricks were performed by Flea… more on that later. The Blu-ray disc played beautifully. In fact it was almost like being at Angelica, except their subway rumblings were supplanted by our occasional flurry of 3rd Avenue traffic and, of course, they don’t have a dog that barks back at barking movie-dogs. Debra Granik might very well get an Oscar nomination for her wonderful film. Winter’s Bone is a perfectly paced thriller that grants us access to a world which would otherwise (thankfully) be inaccessible. It’s just slow enough to be creepy, but spiced up with excitement just when needed.

Speaking of spiced up… we had special drinks to honor the night. Although they might have been appreciated more on a cold winter’s evening (you just can’t trust the weather these days, can you?), the “Warm Winter’s Bone” (a hot, spice-mulled apple cider) and the “Warm Winter’s Boner” (the same ingredients stiffened up with a generous portion of Captain Morgan’s) went down a treat. We also made some yummy brownies (all organic!) and Zofi decorated a few of them. They looked somewhat worried, and with good reason… here are some that made it through until the end of the evening.  Will they last another night? Ich don’t think so.

So… about that trick; we’ve been teaching Flea to shake his paws separately, left and right. By way of demonstrating this, I asked Circe to write down a sequence of left and rights, and I then read them off in order to Flea, slowly and deliberately. He got the first eleven right and then lost it on the twelfth and final one.  Pretty damn good, I say. Of course he got a yummy treat for that! You can follow Flea on his blog at fleathedog.com if you’re interested.

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The Killers… Killer!

Movies

The Killers made for a fantastic break from our recent plethora of films from the 2000’s. Techniques such as back projection (a fine example in this picture) may have seemed at first somewhat comical to our modern audience, but as is the case with all good movie-making, it wasn’t long before the language of cinema made appreciative believers of us.  Forty-five odd years ago, color was still considered a luxury. As for putting the talent on a trailer and shooting them at speed? Way too dangerous!

Thanks to those who came and enjoyed this one with us!

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